As users experience the convenience of wireless connectivity, they are demanding increasing support. Typical applications over wireless networks include video streaming, video conferencing, distance learning, etc. Because wireless bandwidth availability is restricted, quality of service (QoS) management is increasingly important in 802.11 networks.
The original 802.11 media access control (MAC) protocol was designed with two modes of communication for wireless stations (STAs). The first mode, Distributed Coordination Function (DCF), is based on Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA), sometimes referred to as “listen before talk.” A wireless station (STA) waits for a quiet period on the network and then begins to transmit data and detect collisions. The second mode, Point Coordination Function (PCF), supports time-sensitive traffic flows. Using PCF, wireless access points (APs) periodically send beacon frames to communicate network identification and management parameters specific to the wireless local area network (WLAN). Between beacon frames, PCF splits time into a contention period (CP) where the STAs implement a DCF protocol, and a contention-free period (CFP) where an AP coordinates access by the various STAs based on QoS requirements.
Because DCF and PCF do not differentiate between traffic types or sources, IEEE proposed enhancements to both coordination modes to facilitate QoS. These changes are intended to fulfill critical service requirements while maintaining backward-compatibility with current 802.11 standards.
Enhanced Distributed Channel Access (EDCA) introduces the concept of traffic categories (or access classes). Using EDCA, STAs try to send data after detecting that the wireless medium is idle for a set time period defined by the corresponding access class (AC). A higher-priority AC will have a shorter wait time than a lower-priority AC. While no guarantees of service are provided, EDCA establishes a probabilistic priority mechanism to allocate bandwidth based on ACs.
The IEEE 802.11e EDCA standard provides QoS differentiation by grouping traffic into four ACs, i.e., voice, video, best effort and background. Each transmission frame from the upper layers bears a priority value (0-7), which is passed down to the MAC layer. Based on the priority value, the transmission frames are mapped into the four ACs at the MAC layer. The voice (VO) AC has the highest priority; the video (VI) AC has the second highest priority; the best effort (BE) AC has the third highest priority; and the background (BK) AC has the lowest priority. Each AC has its own transmission queue and its own set of AC-sensitive medium access parameters. Traffic prioritization uses the medium access parameters—the arbitration interframe space (AIFS) interval, contention window (CW, CWmin and CWmax), and transmission opportunity (TXOP)—to ensure that a higher priority AC has relatively more medium access opportunity than a lower priority AC.
Generally, in EDCA, AIFS is the time interval that a STA must sense the wireless medium to be idle before invoking a backoff mechanism or transmission. A higher priority AC uses a smaller AIFS interval. The contention window (CW, CWmin and CWmax) indicates the number of backoff time slots until the STA can attempt another transmission. The contention window is selected as a random backoff number of slots between 0 and CW. CW starts at CWmin. CW is essentially doubled every time a transmission fails until CW reaches its maximum value CWmax. Then, CW maintains this maximum value CWmax until the transmission exceeds a retry limit. A higher priority AC uses smaller CWmin and CWmax. A lower priority AC uses larger CWmin and CWmax. The TXOP indicates the maximum duration that an AC can be allowed to transmit frames after acquiring access to the medium. To save contention overhead, multiple transmission frames can be transmitted within one TXOP without additional contention, as long as the total transmission time does not exceed the TXOP duration.
To reduce the probability of two STAs colliding, because the two STAs cannot hear each other, the standard defines a virtual carrier sense mechanism. Before a STA initiates a transaction, the STA first transmits a short control frame called RTS (Request To Send), which includes the source address, the destination address and the duration of the upcoming transaction (i.e. the data frame and the respective ACK). Then, the destination STA responds (if the medium is free) with a responsive control frame called CTS (Clear to Send), which includes the same duration information. All STAs receiving either the RTS and/or the CTS set a virtual carrier sense indicator, i.e., the network allocation vector (NAV), for the given duration, and use the NAV together with the physical carrier sense when sensing the medium as idle or busy. This mechanism reduces the probability of a collision in the receiver area by a STA that is “hidden” from the transmitter STA to the short duration of the RTS transmission, because the STA hears the CTS and “reserves” the medium as busy until the end of the transaction. The duration information in the RTS also protects the transmitter area from collisions during the ACK from STAs that are out of range of the acknowledging STA. Due to the fact that the RTS and CTS are short, the mechanism reduces the overhead of collisions, since these transmission frames are recognized more quickly than if the whole data transmission frame was to be transmitted (assuming the data frame is bigger than RTS). The standard allows for short data transmission Frames, i.e., those shorter than an RTS Threshold, to be transmitted without the RTS/CTS transaction.
With these medium access parameters, EDCA generally works in the following manner:
Before a transmitting STA can initiate any transmission, the transmitting STA must first sense the channel idle (physically and virtually) for at least an AIFS time interval. If the channel is idle after the initial AIFS interval, then the transmitting STA initiates an RTS transmission and awaits a CTS transmission from the receiving STA.
If a collision occurs during the RTS transmission or if CTS is not received, then the transmitting STA invokes a backoff procedure using a backoff counter to count down a random number of backoff time slots selected between 0 and CW (initially set to CWmin). The transmitting STA decrements the backoff counter by one as long as the channel is sensed to be idle. If the transmitting STA senses the channel to be busy at any time during the backoff procedure, the transmitting STA suspends its current backoff procedure and freezes its backoff counter until the channel is sensed to be idle for an AIFS interval again. Then, if the channel is still idle, the transmitting STA resumes decrementing its remaining backoff counter.
Once the backoff counter reaches zero, the transmitting STA initiates an RTS transmission and awaits a CTS transmission from the receiving STA. If a collision occurs during the RTS transmission or CTS is not received, then the transmitting STA invokes another backoff procedure, possibly increasing the size of CW. That is, as stated above, after each unsuccessful transmission, CW is essentially doubled until it reaches CWmax. After a successful transmission, CW returns to its default value of CWmin. During the transaction, the STA can initiate multiple frame transmissions without additional contention as long as the total transmission time does not exceed the TXOP duration.
The level of QoS control for each AC is determined by the combination of the medium access parameters and the number of competing STAs in the network.
The Hybrid Coordination Function (HCF) is another 802.11e wireless protocol. Generally, HCF uses the concepts of PCF, but substitutes the protocols of DCF during the contention period (CP) with the improved protocols of EDCA. Using HCF, a hybrid coordinator (HC), typically co-located with the AP, periodically sends beacon frames. Each beacon frame includes a beacon interval, a timestamp, a service set identifier (SSID) identifying the specific wireless LAN, supported rates, parameter sets identifying implemented signaling protocols (frequency hopping spread spectrum, direct sequence spread spectrum, etc.), capability information identifying communication requirements (WEP, etc.), a traffic indication map (TIM) identifying data frames waiting in the AP's buffer, and a contention-free period (CFP) duration. The AP and STAs use the information in the beacon frames to implement HCF.
Between beacon frames, HCF splits time into a contention-free period (CFP) and a contention period (CP). During the CFP, the AP uses HCF controlled channel access (HCCA) protocols to coordinate access by the various STAs based on QoS requirements. The contention-free period (CFP) typically begins with the receipt of a beacon frame, and ends either upon expiration of the CFP duration as specified in the beacon frame or upon receiving a CFP-End frame from the HC. During the CP, the AP and STAs use a combination of EDCA and HCCA protocols. Each STA accesses the wireless medium when the wireless medium is determined to be available under EDCA rules or when the STA receives a QoS CF-Poll frame from the HC. In other words, unlike PCF, HCF enables contention-free bursts called controlled access periods (CAPs) during the CP to allow priority traffic to access the wireless medium without contention. At all other times during the CP, the STAs access the wireless medium using EDCA. FIG. 1B is a timing diagram illustrating prior art CAP/CP/CFP intervals. As shown, a CFP Repetition Interval includes both the CFP and CP.
It should be noted that the IEEE 802.11e standard only supports enhanced QoS for unicast traffic, and does not address QoS support for multicast/broadcast traffic. Unicast traffic generally refers to communication of a piece of information from one point to another point. In the unicast case, there is one sender and one receiver. Broadcast traffic generally refers to communication of a piece of information from one point to all other points on the network. In the broadcast case, there is one sender, and all points connected to the medium are the receivers. Multicast traffic generally refers to communication of a piece of information from one or more points on a network to a group of other points on the network. In the multicast case, there may be one or more senders, and a group of zero or more points are the receivers.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a prior art multicast/broadcast network 100. The AP 105 sends a multicast/broadcast packet 110 to STA1, STA2, STA3 and STA4. In accordance with the prior art, receiving STA1, STA2, STA3 and STA4 do not return an ACK frame to confirm receipt of an error-free packet. Accordingly, there is little to no transport reliability.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a prior art multicast/broadcast network 200. The AP 205 sends a multicast/broadcast packet 210 to STA1, STA2, STA3 and STA4. As shown, STA3 is the leader, returning an ACK frame on behalf of all STAs to confirm receipt of an error-free packet. However, this scheme does not ensure good reception by the other multicast/broadcast clients.
The QoS provisions for multicast/broadcast traffic in prior art systems are insufficient. Systems and methods that enhance QoS in the multicast/broadcast environment are needed.
Example prior art references include the following:                1. IEEE 802.11 WG, “Draft Supplement to Part 11: Wireless Medium Access Control (MAC) and Physical Layer (PHY) Specifications: Medium Access Control (MAC) Enhancements for Quality of Service (QoS)”, IEEE 802.11e, November. 2005.        2. J. Kuri and S. K. Kasera, “Reliable Multicast/Broadcast in Multi-access Wireless LANS,” ACM Wireless Networks, 2001.        3. U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,871        4. U.S. Pat. No. 7,013,157        5. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0196917        6. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0256740        7. U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006/0285518        